First post...

Once I post something, I'm aware it's on the Internet for ever more. Wow, what a thought...

So for my first post, I'm going to give vent to my feelings about the 2010 Love Parade tragedy on Duisburg which has now claimed the lives of 20 young people. How on Earth could this have happened?

I visited Germany in 1995 and spent some time there with a pen-friend Hans. The hospitality shown to me was extraordinary and I was made to feel a very welcome guest. I was taken everywhere and shown all areas of German culture and left me with a lasting impression of this beautiful country which is as strong now as it was then, 15 years ago. I've always said that I left a part of myself there and I feel strongly about this, so much so that I intend to return one day...

My fondness of the country and of the people I met there have served to make me feel very strongly about the events of Saturday 24th July.

I have spent a great deal of time reading reports, watching video and examining photos. Everything I have see lead me to believe that the site was wholly unsuited to the purpose of hosting Europe's, indeed the World's largest music festival. How could a single entrance through a tunnel (Karl Lehr Strasse) be deemed sufficient for the huge numbers of people expected to use it? Had it been raining rather than hot and sunny, would this have reduced the numbers or instead would more revellers have tried to cram into the tunnel?

If the reports are reliable, there were plenty of warnings, well before the event. Were previous events examined for crowd control technique? Did the organisers really expect for no more than the 250,000 people the site was licensed to hold? It is estimated that as many as 1.4 million people could have attended the site. Duisburg has a population of approx 500,000.

Why wasn't a ticketing system in place such as at the UK's Glastonbury?

There are certainly a lot of tough questions to answer and from what has been reported so far, these answers will not be given up easily. Someone is certainly feeling very responsible and very guilty, that's for certain.

Of course, none of this will bring back any of the 20 beautiful lost lives. We owe it to them, however, to make certain that such a tragedy can never be allowed to occur again. Perhaps some science can be put into play to work out exactly how much space and number of exits must be allowed for a certain number of people - and that this could be made law? Perhaps this is just wishful thinking...

It hurts to see the pictures and the video of the events on Saturday. It is painful to think of the lives of those lost and to be able to put faces to those lives, for these are now appearing on the Internet. What if they had climbed on each other's shoulders? Maybe... What could they have become and where could their life journey have led them? We'll never know except I can't stop imagining them all dancing with angels... That would be nice.

I will continue to follow the German press and other sites as it's so important that this isn't forgotten and some answers are found. I think the feelings of the countless hundreds of thousands of fun seeking people present at Love Parade 2010 will ensure this...